TEST DRIVE MEME ( 010 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

Test Drive Meme #10

Hello, and welcome to LifeAftr! We’re pleased that you’re expressing an interest in the game. Here, you can test the waters, gauge how your character may fare in the world of LifeAftr, and even gain some in-game incentives, if you so choose.

Remember that Reserves will open on April 17th, and Applications on April 24th!

Two important notes:

1. LifeAftr's test drives take place on the island of Mu, which exists apart from the real world and possesses a dream-like quality that characters are innately aware of from the moment they appear on its shores. No need to panic or fret. Dreams are odd things, after all - and anything can happen in them. Why would anyone question where their mind chooses to wander in its sleep?

2. Due to the nature of Mu, threads in our test drive can not only be accepted as thread samples in your application, but can be accepted as game canon as well. In fact, certain choices your character makes in Mu have the potential to bear in-game consequences, largely in the form of test drive reward items.

Friends on the Other Side
When you open your eyes, it is to a shadow-tinted cityscape. The buildings are clay-built and colorless, plunging seemingly infinitely onward into the sky before disappearing into a dense pool of foglike sky. The silence weighs heavily like a mantle across every inch of this place, and no matter how you squint at them, every structure seems strangely blurred, as though being viewed through distorted telescope lens, or in the reflection of a pool of water.

All told, it's probably obvious from the start that all is not well here. From the moment you arrive in this strange nether-place, your eyelids have begun to grow heavy. Something about this city and its perpetual, misted darkness leaves you inexplicably drowsy, ready to curl up and fall asleep on the spot.

That wouldn't be a problem, perhaps, if you were alone. Mu does not boast a great deal of flora and fauna, but what it does have is a creature capable of inflicting much in the way of misfortune - clockroach. They occupy this city in swarms of wraith-like wisps, both intangible and curiously amorphous. But when they draw close, they instill a sense of terror like no other, usually igniting one's fight-or-flight response as a result. Sure, they might not be capable of actually hurting you, but why should that matter, when they have a skill for inducing a sense of utter dread in their targets?

Ever try to get some sleep with fresh adrenaline pumping in your veins?

Pretty Fly for a...Fire Guy
With indigo-blue skies, lush fields of green, and miles of rippling grass hills for as far as the eye can see, Mu has cast you into the perfect and picturesque evening. As the imaginary sun lips the very edge of the horizon and the last glow of orange fades to the purple of dusk, the fields come to life with a smattering of bright, wavering lights. LifeAftr has its fair share of fireflies native to its many regions, but this particular kind is special. They're the size of quarters, very pretty to look at...and incredibly volatile besides. It's hard to interpret what these wondrous little glow-bugs might view as a threat or not, but at least it's remarkably easy to discern as much based on the sight of them alone: they're handily color-coded depending on their moods.

While they glow a contented amber by default, those that fireflies warm to will find themselves bathed in a green-blue glow as those bulbous, organic lanterns tint with a soft, cool turquoise. A few of them might even settle across your arms and in your hair, if they take that much of a shine to you.

Of course, those the fireflies don't warm to will be able to note as such when they light up a blazing crimson, mere seconds before the insects spit a stream of glowing orange, molten-colored acid. It stings and burns in equal measure, just as likely to scald you as it is to set the surrounding fields aflame.

Flower You Doing That?
Adventurers were both wary and relieved to discover that the next island on the horizon, known as Ziziphus, appeared to be a rather vegetation-rich paradise. They were considerably less relieved to learn that this island contained predators just like all the rest of them, despite the rich green backdrop of its meadows and the promise of lush woodland at its heart.

So it is that you, too, will learn that sometimes tufts of ferns are not tufts of ferns at all...but dangerous creatures called spindlanks. What might initially appear to be a leafy hillock will very quickly prove to be something far more...mobile, if you get close enough. That clump of grass and red ferns will abruptly hoist itself up on six vine-like tendrils, crawling for its prey like a very large, mossy spider. While it's fully capable of swiping at its foes with its massive, leafy arms, the spindlank's favored method of dispatching its prey is simply to scuttle forth until it's positioned directly above you and drop down. If its weight does not crush you and choking on the clods of earth doesn't smother you, don't worry; the spindlank intends to eat you alive with a set of fleshy jaws set deep in its center.

For despite their leafy appearance, spindlanks are very much carnivorous. Their size can vary from anywhere between six and ten feet tall when their appendages unfurl entirely. They burn as easily as any plant matter would, but the size of them can make them quite difficult to topple alone.

And they are almost always hungry.

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Comments

[everylittlesecret]

........ [Mira... but not? After Airlocked, she knows that different timelines exist. What time is this one from?]

Well, if they're like cockroaches from back home? Nothing. Cockroaches are actually very sanitary beings that don't carry diseases and don't spread them. If you're looking at the peak of hygiene and health, you're looking at a cockroach. Unless these ones are different.

[encircling]

Th-that is not what I worry about!

[ Does she not fear anything? What is she? ]

D-do you not feel scared?!

[everylittlesecret]

.... [She looks from the cockroaches, to Mira, back to the bugs, then once again to Mira.]

After spending a year in space trapped in two places where people killed each other on a weekly basis and aliens keeping us under lock and key? Naw. These things are pretty cute compared to that.

[encircling]

[ She stares at her, mouth hanging slightly open. ]

That... that sounds terrible.

[everylittlesecret]

Right? But I survived. Well, because apparently people wanted me alive. I guess that's the difference.

[May as well get this out of the way...]

I killed and got away with it. So if you're looking for someone without blood on their hands, I recommend you go and find someone else.

[encircling]

[ She watches her... then sighs and crosses her arms. ]

You are speaking with someone who has killed many times in the past. I would be a terrible hypocrite if I shunned you for the same.

[everylittlesecret]

Yes... but I killed so the girl I was once in love with wouldn't forget me. And my victim was someone I liken to a father. We were family, basically, and the way I killed him........ I'm still surprised he forgave me.

[encircling]

Hm.

[ She makes a quiet sound. ]

I will not judge you for that, still. I would have done the same.

[everylittlesecret]

Really? That... Huh. There's not a lot of people who would agree with you on that.

[encircling]

[ With a shrug, she laughs softly. ]

You may be right... but if there is something about which I feel strongly, or someone I love dearly, there are few things that would hold me back.

[everylittlesecret]

... I think... that's why they wanted to keep me alive. Why my girlfriend tried to sacrifice herself for me... Love makes people do weird things.